Mini GRBL 2 big problems

Asking here because Awesome tech is closed to new forum members. Bought a mini grbl for my k40 and couldn’t get it to work. Received email support and went through a few things over a week of back and forth emails. Couldn’t get it to work, basically been ignored since. Has anyone here had a good outcome with Awesome tech’s tech support?

What is your technical problem with this controller?

It doesn’t work.

is it just dead ?, stone dead? half dead? … do you want help with the diagnosis or just want to hear the experiences with AvsomeTech others have had?

I purchased Paul’s original gerbil 8 bit. Had issues setting up my account on his website. Private message me and I’ll give you his email address. In my experience he provides good support. The days the world is a different place and you never can tell what’s going on.

Have you tried a different usb cable? Have you wired it correctly- the main thing is the big 4 pin plug and getting that orientation correct?

I went back and forth with Paul for a week checking wiring and making sure the right pins were in the right
position. I get a green light and it shows up in Lightburn but does not do anything.

Lot’s of people are familiar with the board you have and may be able to offer some assistance if that’s what your looking for, if you provide concise information. For example you say it connects with a green light & shows up in Lightburn but then in the same sentence you say it does nothing. It cant be both. Perhaps provide images of your board, wiring connections, grbl settings and Lightburn settings and accurately describe what the problem your having is or errors or alarms your experiencing. But Paul or Dan would probably be best at resolving your problems.

Well Paul gave up on me. If he can’t figure it out who can?

Have you tried any other software?
What version of lightburn do you have installed?
You say your machine appears in Lightburn but nothing happens, try to explain it a little more.
On Paul’s side, there is a troubleshooting chart. How far do you get in the chart?

I have been monitoring this thread and find that you are not offering technical responses to the questions being asked by others. Simply identifying “…it shows up in Lightburn but does not do anything.”, does not really offer information we can go on to help you. :slight_smile:

Have a read here to better understand what is needed to offer you the best possible outcome from posting on this forum:

1 Like

This is what I get when I turn it on
Waiting for connection…

Waiting for connection…

Port opened, waiting for response.

Grbl 1.1f [’$’ for help]

ok

Waiting for connection…

Waiting for connection…

Port opened, waiting for response.

ok

Waiting for connection…

Waiting for connection…

Port opened, waiting for response.

ok

ALARM:9

ok

Grbl 1.1f [’$’ for help]

[MSG:’$H’|’$X’ to unlock

ALARM:9

ok

Grbl 1.1f [’$’ for help]

[MSG:’$H’|’$X’ to unlock

<Alarm|MPos:-480.000,-480.000,480.000,0.000,0.000|FS:0,0|WCO:0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000>

ok

Starting stream

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

Stream completed in 0:00

<Alarm|MPos:-480.000,-480.000,480.000,0.000,0.000|FS:0,0|Ov:100,100,100|A:S>

ok

Starting stream

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

Stream completed in 0:00

<Alarm|MPos:-480.000,-480.000,480.000,0.000,0.000|FS:0,0>

ok

Starting stream

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

error:9

On or near line 0:

Stream completed in 0:00

Port opened, waiting for response.

Grbl 1.1f [’$’ for help]

ok

<Idle|MPos:0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000|FS:0,0|WCO:0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000>

ok

Starting stream

Stream completed in 0:00

<Idle|MPos:10.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000|FS:0,0|Ov:100,100,100|A:S>

ok

Starting stream

Stream completed in 0:00

Then this.
Waiting for connection…

Waiting for connection…

error:9

Homing

ALARM:9

ok

Grbl 1.1f [’$’ for help]

[MSG:’$H’|’$X’ to unlock

Thank you. Where are you “getting” this? In LightBurn or another software?

Have you looked up what this error is telling you? Here is a link to all the error messages that grbl could throw: Grbl v1.1 Interface · gnea/grbl Wiki · GitHub

And here is a list of all the settings for grbl which you will need to reference from time to time: Grbl v1.1 Configuration · gnea/grbl Wiki · GitHub

These negative numbers are not going to be supported in LightBurn. Read here as to how to set up the workspace to work in positive space along with the other important configuration information: Common GRBL/GCode Setups - LightBurn Software Documentation

Lightburn, on a mac running OSX 10.14.6. I went over all of the error messages with Paul. He had me try a few things but it didn’t help.

You still have the error state and grbl will continue to throw alarms until corrected. Go over the provided links and report back with what you have changed, exactly, based on these recommendations, and what results you get. We can go from there.

First of all please share all of your $ parameters. Alarm 9 is due to trying to jog before completing a homing cycle ($22=1 mandates you home before moving ro sending any gCode). error 9 is likely another symptom of not having completed a homing cycle. Have you set vref for your drivers?

Try $x to clear the alarm, then $h at the console and see if it homes. If it tries to home, but in the incorrect direction, then adjust $23.

Hhhmmm, many days and no response from the person in need of help…
Anyway, nothing he’s posted has a real implication to an actual hardware problem, maybe an issue with how he has it configured.

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